Adam Prudhomme
Editor
Students from Southview Public School and The Prince Charles Public School had the chance to learn about their own family history recently, with help from the Lennox and Addington Museum and Archives.
Using the resources from the county’s archives, the students were challenged to pose a question about their great-great relatives or figures from the past and then conduct research to find an answer.
“They had the opportunity to create their own inquiry question, connected to a person or an issue that they were interested in,” explains Terri Dupuis, a Grade 7 teacher from Southview. “A lot of them chose their own personal family history, which was amazing. They learned things their own family didn’t even know.”
The project was created by L&A County Museum and Archives program co-ordinator Amber Meyer.
“The concept of this program was to inspire students to see beyond the words in their history textbooks and be able to link their own past to what they were learning in school,” said Meyer. “History is so much more than dates and names, it gives us the clues to how we got to be here today and within that figuring out what our families went through to get us here.”
Students were given access to the museum’s vast archives, which included the use of ancestry.ca.
“We really focused on primary resources at the museum,” said Dupuis.
Some of the research turned up some impressive findings, such as one student learning they were a descendant of James Watt, who played a major role in the creation of the steam engine. Another learned the history behind a family painting that they hangs in their house, one they walk by everyday but had known nothing about. Another delved into the treatment of people suffering from mental health illnesses in 1882.
“A lot of kids who were really successful at this had research that led them in different directions,” said Dupuis.
“Their inquiry questions came as a result of research, which was pretty awesome.”
The final part of the project was to present their findings at the museum as part of Archives Awareness Week. Some of the students took the extra step of actually dressing in clothing from the era of their research.
Dupuis said some also have shown interest in continuing to study on their own.